  |
This article's content is marked as Mature The page contains mature content that may include coarse language, sexual references, and/or graphic violent images which may be disturbing to some. Mature pages are recommended for those who are 18 years of age and older. If you are 18 years or older or are comfortable with graphic material, you are free to view this page. Otherwise, you should close this page and view another page. |
| “ | Okay, here's my game. You have 30 minutes to answer every question I ask. And if you lie, I'll know, because I have spent the last 10 years of my life studying men and their lies... before I kill them. | „ |
| ~ Adams challenging Spencer Reid to a battle of wits. |
| “ | Game on. | „ |
| ~ Adams' most famous quote. |
Catherine "Cat" Adams, alias "Ms. 45", is one of the two secondary antagonists (alongside Ian Doyle) of the TV series Criminal Minds. She is a brilliant, psychopathic assassin, and the archnemesis of FBI Agent Spencer Reid, one of the series' main protagonists.
She was portrayed by Aubrey Plaza, who also portrayed Lenny Busker/the Shadow King in Legion, Dylan Beekler in Golan the Insatiable, and Rio Vidal in Agatha All Along.
History[]
Early life[]
Adams was physically and emotionally abused as a child by her father, Daniel, who eventually went to prison for murdering her mother, Laila. She was taken in by a foster family, who were also abusive. She committed her first murder by killing her foster father and - in a precocious display of the skills she would later use as an assassin - making it look like an accident.
After Daniel was released from prison and went abroad, Adams traveled the world looking for him, obsessed with killing him and avenging her mother. She could not find him, however, so she became an assassin in order to make a living killing men who reminded her of him. After a few years operating on her own, she joined an online network of assassins - consisting of Giuseppe Montolo, Zac Rubenis, Sharon Mayford, and Barry Plyman, and answering to Montolo's mob boss father, Chazz - operating through the dark web, who each had a particular, specialized method of killing. She specialized in killing men up close with a .45 pistol, earning the nickname "Ms. 45".
Eventually, however, she earned the displeasure of the assassin network by double-crossing three clients who hired her to kill their wives; she murdered the clients instead, because they reminded her of her father.
"Entropy"[]
Adams meets with Agent Spencer Reid of the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU) - who is working undercover, posing as a man seeking to have his pregnant wife murdered - at a restaurant, but she quickly sees through his story, and deduces that he is with the BAU, who have been investigating the network ever since apprehending the younger Montolo. She then reveals that she knows that Reid's fellow BAU agents are in the restaurant waiting to arrest her.
She makes a deal with Reid, promising to surrender peacefully if he spends the next 30 minutes answering any question she asks; if she finds out that he is lying, he must walk her out of the restaurant and let her go. Reid agrees, and explains in response to her questions that the BAU had found the network after arresting corrupt National Security Agency Director Brian Cochran, the head of a drug cartel and the network's contact within the intelligence community who uses them to eliminate rival drug lords. They then intercepted and stopped a hit that Rubenis and Plyman were about to carry out, killing them both in the process.
Adams then asks Reid why he had recently taken time off from work, threatening to kill Agent David Rossi, who is approaching their table, unless she gets an honest answer. Reid reluctantly admits that he had been tending to his mother, Diana, who suffers from paranoid schizophrenia. Reid explains further that he chose his undercover identity after deducing that her victims are surrogates for her abusive father. Adams appears shaken by Reid's analysis, but regains the upper hand by revealing that one of her fellow network assassins - Mayford, known as "The Bomber" - went with her to the restaurant, and has planted explosives in the building that connected to the city's gas manes that could kill hundreds of people if triggered.
Unwilling to risk innocent lives, BAU Supervising Agent Aaron Hotchner orders Reid to let Adams go. She triumphantly gets up from the table and prepares to leave, but Reid stops her in her tracks by saying that he has found her father. He explains that he and Technical Analyst Penelope Garcia had found records of her mother's murder, her father's imprisonment, and her placement in the foster care system, and spoken with her father, now a homeless alcoholic whose brain is so damaged by years of drinking that he doesn't remember his own daughter. She retaliates by demanding more information about Reid's mother, forcing him to admit that she has just been diagnosed with Alzheimer's, and that he fears he will get it, too. Adams spitefully replies that he cannot help her or his mother, and arms the bombs.
Agents Derek Morgan and Tara Lewis, who are sitting in the back of the restaurant, spot Mayford about to detonate the bombs, and subdue her. Adams takes Reid hostage, but Morgan distracts her by claiming to have brought her father and offering her the chance to put him prison for murdering her mother. She agrees, with the condition that Reid walks her out. Reid takes her to a SWAT van, only to reveal that it is empty; Reid admits to lying about finding her father before throwing her in the back, telling her that she might get out of prison in 20 years, if she is lucky. Adams responds by mocking Reid about his mother's Alzheimer's and gloating that she has won, saying, "In 20 years, I'll remember your name, but you won't remember mine."
"Green Light"[]
A year later, Adams is serving her sentence in a maximum security prison, having spent the previous six months in solitary confinement.
At the end of the episode, she is revealed to be the mastermind of a plot to frame Reid for murder, working with fellow assassin Lindsey Vaughn to drug him with scopolamine and stab Nadie Ramos to death to make it look like he committed the crime, which lands him in prison. Adams and Vaughn misdirect the BAU team into believing that serial killer Peter Lewis, a recurring foe of the BAU who uses scopolamine to force people to commit murder, is responsible for framing Reid, as well as for kidnapping his mother, Diana. Adams then makes an iPad recording of herself taking credit for framing Reid and demanding to see him in prison to settle their "unfinished business", and has two of her underlings deliver it to the BAU.
Reid is exonerated after Lindsey's fingerprints are found on the knife. He and fellow BAU Agent Jennifer Jareau meet with Adams in her cell, where they immediately see that six months in solitary confinement have left her even more unhinged than usual. Adams smiles, and greets Reid as "Spencie".
"Red Light"[]
Adams tells Reid to get rid of Jareau, and then asks him to play another game, this time letting him ask questions about a secret she knows about him. If he guesses correctly within four hours, she will call Lindsey and tell her to release Diana unharmed, but if he guesses wrong, she will tell Lindsey to kill her. She also gives him one hint: the secret is one that he would never admit to anyone, not even himself.
She tries to goad Reid into making a wrong guess by talking about past traumas in his life, such as the murder of his mentor, Jason Gideon, and the recent departure of Morgan, his best friend, from the BAU. Reid manages to deflect the questions, however, and deduces that she wants him to say that he is in love with her. She bristles at the suggestion, and gets back at him by claiming to be pregnant with his child. When he says he could not possibly be the father, she replies that, after Lindsey drugged him, she pretended to be his deceased girlfriend, Maeve Donovan, in order to seduce him, and that she smuggled his sperm into Adams' cell so she could use it to get pregnant.
Meanwhile, Reid's colleagues at the BAU realize that Adams must have accessed his classified FBI file through a source in the prison. Agents Tara Lewis and Stephen Walker question the owner of the armory where Lindsey bought her weapons, who says that Lindsey told him that she needs weapons to protect herself and her girlfriend from homophobic people who have threatened them. They realize that the girlfriend she referred to is none other than Adams, which would explain why Lindsey is taking risks for her that she has never taken for anyone else. They then deduce that their investigation of Lindsey's crimes threatens Adams' relationship with her, so she is taking revenge against Reid by taking away someone he loves - his mother.
Reid tells Adams that she cannot be a mother because she is incapable of love, and gets up to leave, saying that she must have already killed Diana. Desperate for him to stay, she says that she will let him talk to Diana. She calls Lindsey, who lets Diana talk into the phone for a moment before setting her car on fire. Reid panics when he hears the explosion, and Adams says that, if Diana is dead, it is his own fault. This provokes the usually mild-mannered Reid to slam her against the wall and choke her, until Jareau pulls him off of her, saying that Diana is alive.
Reid gets Adams to admit that she had someone within the prison watch him for her, and he tells her that he poisoned several convicts who had threatened him in prison in order to save his own life. She gloats that the BAU is walking into a trap, and that he must let her use his phone if he wants to save them.
The BAU realizes that the spy worked in the prison that houses Adams and the one that housed Reid. Garcia cross-references employment records at both prisons, and finds guard Lionel Wilkins. She finds out that he has a cabin in the nearby woods, and the team surmises that he is going to meet Lindsey there with Diana. When they get there, Lindsey has killed Wilkins and has timed an explosive device to blow up the cabin and kill everyone inside.
Reid tells Adams that he knows her unborn child is Wilkins', not his, but says that he wishes he was the baby's father because he and Adams are both monsters, and therefore deserve each other - this is the real secret. With uncharacteristically real tears in her eyes, she calls Lindsey, and orders her to kill Diana. Unbeknownst to her, however, Garcia has broadcast a live feed from inside the cell to the BAU's cell phones, and Lindsey has seen her entire conversation with Reid. Lindsey condemns Adams for cheating on her, and Supervisory Agent Emily Prentiss convinces her to disarm the bomb and let Diana go, thus ruining Adams' plan.
As Reid prepares to leave, Adams spitefully tells him that they really do deserve each other, and that he crossed a line by poisoning people that he can never go back from. Reid simply replies, "Watch me," and walks out, leaving Adams alone in her cell.
"Date Night"[]
Unable to stand the boredom of life in prison, Adams pleads guilty to 73 counts of murder and is sentenced to death. She decides to take one last attempt at destroying Reid, however, by having her former cellmate Juliette Weaver kidnap the father and sister of his new girlfriend, Maxine Brenner, in return for framing Juliette's ex-boyfriend for the crime.
Upon learning of Weaver's connection to Adams, the BAU brings the latter in for questioning, but she refuses to talk to anyone but Reid. She tells him that her last request is to go on a date with him, so he reluctantly takes her ice-skating so she will tell him what the BAU needs to know to save her latest victims. During their "date", she reveals that she miscarried in prison, and insinuates that it might have been his child after all. She then demands to go back to Reid's apartment, where an argument ends in them kissing passionately - in front of Maxine, who had been waiting there for Reid.
Adams starts playing mind games with Maxine, as well, asking her if anyone has ever hurt her. Maxine says that her ex-boyfriend was abusive and that she killed him, which prompts Adams to lie to her that her miscarriage occurred three days after Reid threw her against a wall. Satisfied that she has destroyed Reid's relationship with Maxine, Adams reveals where Weaver has imprisoned Maxine's father and sister, and surrenders to the BAU. As Adams is taken into custody, however, Maxine reveals that she fabricated her story about killing an abusive boyfriend to win her trust and that the BAU showed her medical records revealing the true cause of her miscarriage, meaning that Adams' plan to ruin their relationship has failed. Adams remains defiant, however, telling Reid that she is the only person in the world who really knows him.
She is then presumably executed.
Trivia[]
- Adams is inspired by multiple real-life criminals:
- Richard Kuklinski, a.k.a. "The Iceman", a hitman and serial killer with an abuse riddled childhood and a record of killing his hometown's bully before he turned to a full-time life of crime.
- Joanna Dennehy, a.k.a. "The Peterborough Ditch Murderer", a serial killer of men who had both male and female lovers/accomplices and who and tried to escape from prison.
- Celeste Beard, a proxy murderer of her husband through another woman she seduced, a woman who later turned on her, akin to Adams' manipulation of Lindsey Vaughn and the subsequent murder of Lionel Wilkins.
- Kenneth Bianchi, one of the two "Hillside Stranglers", a serial killer who seduced serial killer groupie Veronica Compton, the inspiration for Juliette Weaver, to commit a copycat attack on a woman to cast doubt on his guilt.
- In her final appearance, Adams is briefly shown wearing a mouth guard and straitjacket, similar to Hannibal Lecter.
External links[]
- Cat Adams on the Criminal Minds Wiki
